Barbara and Donald Jonas spent many years investing in their art collection and in a few decades have amassed a definitive collection of abstract expressionist works by the likes of de Kooning, Rothko, Gorky, and Kline.  In May 2005, their formidable collection was auctioned off at Christie’s for $44.3 million and all that money is available for charitable purposes.  The walls of the Jonases’ prewar Manhattan apartment may be a little emptier—they kept 15 of their 30 works—but their hearts could not be more full. The same passion that drove them to collect art is defining their new mission to advocate for the nursing profession. “We wanted to deal with our philanthropy as creatively and thoroughly as we did with our art,” explains Barbara. The retired 70-something couple—Donald is the founder of the Lechters Housewares chain and Barbara is a former practicing psychotherapist and social worker—decided to begin giving back now because as Donald says, “If you die rich, you die poor, really.”

One would be hard pressed to find someone more involved in their community then Bobby Goldberg, CEO of AmTrust Bank (formerly Ohio Savings Bank). There is scarcely a major Jewish organization that he hasn’t contributed to, in one way or another--from his lifelong involvement with the United Jewish Communities to his work with Hillel International, Jewish Agency for Israel, Friends of Zionism 2000, and the Ohio-Israel Chamber of Commerce, just to name a few. Since May 2006, Goldberg has served as chairman of the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University, and is currently working to repatriate Israeli professors working in the U.S. to Israel. Says Goldberg: “Israel’s future success will in large part originate from its universities. We need all the support we can get.”

For most working mothers, dividing your time between work and home is difficult. But when you’re Golden Globe winning actress Kyra Sedgwick, and home is in New York City (with husband Kevin Bacon, and two teenage children), and work is in Los Angeles (shooting The Closer, a weekly drama on the TNT network in its fourth season), the situation is considerably more difficult. Sedgwick began acting at 12 years old when she took on the role of Tzeitel in a production of Fiddler on the Roof. It was then that she decided that she wanted to act for the rest of her life. ”I fell in love with it. I was incredibly passionate about it right away. I got bitten by the bug. That was it for me,” says the actress who later went on to star in television shows and feature films, and has recently added “producer” to her resume.

Dennis Ross has seen it all in his nearly two decades of serving both Republican and Democratic presidents as a strategist and negotiator on Middle East Policy. A democrat himself, Ross never let his own political beliefs get in the way of his role when he served as director for policy planning in the State Department under President George H.W. Bush and special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton. A chief negotiator for both presidents, Ross was integral in shaping the U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process. He is also an author and his latest book is called Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World.

When architect Gal Nauer was asked to redesign The Plaza Hotel in New York, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity—despite being five months pregnant and having to move her family of five from Israel to New York City for the duration of the four-year project. “This is the biggest project of my career,” says the 34-year-old. “My guiding mandate has been to make it the perfect experience for everyone who stays here. It has to be a whole experience from the moment you enter the lobby…to the moment you sit in your suite and take off your shoes at the end of the day.” Her firm, Gal Nauer Architecture, was in charge of the interior architecture and interior design. The restoration project has turned the landmark building’s 800 rooms into 175 luxury condos, and 282 hotel rooms and suites.

His job description—“Talking to God on a daily basis”—is not one commonly found on Monster.com. But world-famous cantor Joseph Malovany of New York’s Fifth Avenue Synagogue, has been engaging his Maker in a musical dialogue since he was 7 years old. With his dramatic, soulful prayers, the podium shakes and the synagogue’s walls literally vibrate. However, Malovany is hardly talking to the walls. The lyrical quality and emotive power of his voice pierces hearts and brings congregants to tears and audiences to their feet. Dubbed by Canada’s Globe and Mail as the “Pavarotti of the synagogues,” he could have easily commanded the stage at the world’s most prestigious opera houses, from La Scala to New York’s Metropolitan Opera. But Malovany has, on numerous occasions, turned down invitations to sing major operatic roles. “God gave me the gift of a voice and I will use that voice to serve Him,” the cantor insists. “I want to show the beauty of Judaism, through its music, to the entire world.”

Dr. Alan Copperman, director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and a co-founder of Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York, officially starts his day at 7 a.m. and seldom is done sending his last e-mail before midnight. The 45-year-old has made New York Magazine’s Best Doctors list every year since  2002, the year after his private practice opened— and he and his team run one of the larger and more successful reproductive programs in the United States, spend every waking minute doing their best to help infertile couples become parents. On any given day, Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York, which Copperman founded with three other Mount Sinai alums, treats up to 200 patients while leading the way in research, particularly in the cutting-edge fields of egg freezing and embryo selection.